May soon(ish) purchase a decent PC.

Would prefer as high spec as I can but don't need it for gaming (I guess it's the graphics card that really determines if a PC is a good gamer or not).

Now, I considered building my own but I'm not convinced that, cost-wise, it actually makes sense. i.e. windows vista, a few bits of software, ideally office (can I use my copy of office XP? would prefer not to register it though )

I've had good experience will Dell in the past and use them at work etc. so they're up there in my list. Any other manufacturers out there with reasonably decent PCs with good spec?

This is not a thread for recommendations for actual PCs (I thereabouts know what spec I want and will configure as such), more a pointer to which websites/manufacturers to look at and see what deals they have etc...

 

My advice - if you're not a gamer - then don't bother with anything too high spec. Sorry I'm not answering your exact question. But get a barebones system (eg, from eBuyer). Install Vista - looking good these days with plenty of recent patches to solve the early bugs

Barebones with built in graphics

ASUS Vintage V2-M2V890 AM2 Barebone - Ebuyer - £60

Then buy the right memory

Crucial 1GB DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300 Memory Unbuffered CL5 Non-ECC 1.8V - Ebuyer - 2GB for £28

Processor. A decent AM2 CPU for next to nothing

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Socket AM2 (2.5GHz) L2 Cache 1MB OEM Processor - Ebuyer - Athlon 64 x2 - £49

Vista x64 bit here (you can get the system builder version)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English - Ebuyer - £57

Find a SATA harddrive. Most are the same sort of price. Can get a massive 500GB drive for around £60.

Use your old DVD drive, keyboard and mouse or get something new for peanuts. You might be able to use your old copy of Office XP. Unsure if you have to register online. If you need a new monitor then I can recommend this Samsung - which is just lovely (have it myself)

Samsung SM226BW 22" Widescreen TFT Monitor 1680x1050 3000:1 300cd/m2 2ms VGA/DVI Black 3 Years Warranty Award Winning Monitor - Ebuyer -£204

Basically, a damn good PC for little over £200. Will run anything you throw at it aside from games. 64bit Vista is where it'll all be in the next year or two.

 

I've just bought a Dell XPS. Here are some of the others I was considering. I have used Gladiator before when they had a counter in Derby, they are in Manchester now. I think you can customise PC's at all of these.

PC Specialists

Gladiator computers

cyberpowersystem

Dell XPS Range

If you look at Dell it can often work out cheaper if you buy from the business side. They are starting to sell them at PC World if you prefere to see what you are buying.

Also HP do a Blackbird which is getting quite a few good benchmarks.

These things can empty your wallet as fast as Scoob upgrading to water cooling kits, SLi Graphics cards etc

HTH

Mick

 

Thanks, keep them coming.

Pls note that I want it to run Vista a a good speed in the future.

I also do some VB/C# and want to run some SQL server and Oracle on it so it needs to run these and run these well.

 

Outstanding reply....... so if you are getting into 'Second Life' what PC then??

 

If you don't want all the hassle of sourcing and building your own try the new MultiMedia unit currently being sold at ALDI !! You may larf! but this machine, for the price, is the poodle's plums and the aftersales assistance from Medion is second to none. I don't work for either company and this advice is purely unsolicited but I am a very satisfied purchaser of a previous offering of the aforementioned Medion unit.

 

What was "cuckoo" about my post? No one mentioned "Second Life"

 

Ooops! Sorry, I was being complimentary didnt realise that 'Smilie' meant 'cuckoo', thought it was scratching head in ignorance (mine), please dont be offended as none meant


I have just discovered SL and wondered what PC would suit this app.... I currently run a mere 400hz, so time for a subtle upgrade me thinks

Cheers

 

Oh, ok, no worries. My understanding is that second life is pretty light on graphics card requirements compared to other games. This site has done a comparison

Typical Frame Rate Performance by Graphics Card/GPU « Official Linden Blog



Basically a decent NVidia 7600GT will see you with around 30 frames per second it seems - for about £44

Nvidia GeForce 7600GT 256MB DDR3 Dual DVI PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer